Murray Hill, New Jersey, US, 21 January, 2010 - Poultry processors now have a new tool for boosting productivity, quality and yield in their freezing lines: a hygienic, cryogenic individual quick freezer (IQF) from Linde North America.

Linde North America, part of The Linde Group, a world leading gases and engineering group, will launch the new CRYOWAVE™ hygienic IQF tunnel freezer to the poultry industry at the International Poultry Exposition in Atlanta’s World Congress Center, 27-29January. Linde will feature this freezer and other cryogenic freezing and chilling technologies in booth #4644 (Hall B).

“Linde, who pioneered dual-mode freezing technology in the late 1990s and has dozens of installations worldwide, has taken it to another level. Our new and improved CRYOWAVE freezer has the most hygienic freezing platform on the market today, coupled with the highest capacity per unit of floor space. This, combined with sleek European styling and an extremely intuitive user interface, makes this one of the most efficient freezers available,” said Mark DiMaggio, head of food and beverage markets, Linde North America.

The CRYOWAVE freezer is especially useful for processors who individually quick freeze poultry items such as diced and sliced products, wings, mechanically deboned product and any other small items that tend to clump or stick to belts. The CRYOWAVE freezer uses a proprietary, agitating wave action that gently tumbles layered products to lock in moisture and maximise yield.

The dual-mode freezer’s patented, controllable wave system delivers the highest attainable amount of IQF product. The vibration also can be turned off when processors want to freeze flat, trayed or formed products.

“The CRYOWAVE has lower operating costs than any other IQF freezer, and is another example of how Linde gives processors the ability to maximise production capacity while processing the highest quality IQF product – critical benefits in this highly competitive market,” DiMaggio said.

“Not only does the CRYOWAVE freezer allow processors to consolidate lines, its unique design practically eliminates product waste due to breakage, clumping or sticking to the freezing belt so processors can still attain the free-flowing product characteristics their customers want,” DiMaggio said.

The CRYOWAVE freezer is part of the Linde CRYOLINE® family of hygienic freezers, several of which also will be featured in Linde’s booth. These include the Linde CRYOLINE PE freezer, which produces consistently formed shapes and weights of sauces, purees, soups and a variety of other liquid food products, and the Linde hygienic impingement freezer, which delivers the highest freezing capacity per unit of floor space than any other straight-line freezer.

The CRYOLINE PE freezer is the only cryogenic freezing technology available that can make frozen pellets, discs, cubes, squares or a combination of shapes. “Whether you are producing for the catering or retail markets, this freezer makes it easy for customers to portion and defrost as much or as little of the product as they need, which eliminates the need for extra packaging and minimises waste,” DiMaggio said.

Linde designed the CRYOLINE freezers in accordance with US Department of Agriculture and American Meat Institute guidelines for sanitary design. They have no niches to harbour pathogens and have sloped internal and external surfaces to eliminate liquid collection and to facilitate easy draining. They offer complete access to all areas for easy cleaning and inspection, reducing maintenance downtime.

About The Linde Group

The Linde Group is a world leading gases and engineering company with almost 50,000 employees working in around 100 countries worldwide. In the 2008 financial year it achieved sales of EUR 12.7 billion (USD 15.9 billion). The strategy of The Linde Group is geared towards sustainable earnings-based growth and focuses on the expansion of its international business with forward-looking products and services.

Linde acts responsibly towards its shareholders, business partners, employees, society and the environment – in every one of its business areas, regions and locations across the globe. Linde is committed to technologies and products that unite the goals of customer value and sustainable development.